Brice Bathellier and Rayan Chikhi awarded a 2025 ERC Proof of Concept grant

The European Research Council (ERC) Proof of Concept scheme, part of the EU's Horizon Europe framework program, is aimed at scientists who have already been awarded an ERC grant (Starting, Consolidator, Advanced or Synergy) that is still ongoing or ended less than a year ago, who are looking to transfer the results of their research, develop their medical and innovation potential and explore market opportunities. 

In the first wave of the 2025 "Proof of concept" call, the European Research Council (ERC) selected 152 projects, including 12 from France. 

This year's laureates include two Institut Pasteur scientists:

Brice Bathellier, Head of the Neural Codes and Dynamics Unit, to the Braincoder project (High-resolution auditory restoration by a brain implant operated with a bio-mimetic deep encoder) which aims to restore auditory perception by directly stimulating the brain using an AI algorithm that converts sound information into the language of neurons. 

Rayan Chikhi, Head of the Sequence Bioinformatics Unit, to the EnzyMiner project (Discovering and Deploying Evolution's Solutions for Microplastic Degradation) which aims to revolutionize microplastic remediation by leveraging computational genomics to discover and optimize highly efficient plastic-degrading enzymes.